Basics of Money: Seeing Through Deceptions

Slides: bit.ly/SSbom - Economics textbooks propagate a lot of myths about money. The goal of this lecture is to counter these, and provide some basic facts about money which enable us to understand the vital role money plays in modern economies. Textbooks teach that money does not matter -- it only affects prices. But money is vital to the production process. Insufficient money will lead to unemployment and recession. The Quantity of money must be aligned with the need of the economy. This is why commodity money has been replaced by token money in the global economy. Token money can be created costlessly, bringing great benefits to the creators. The power to create money has been captures by a small group of financiers, and this has brought them enormous power and wealth. It is possible to create alternative institutional arrangements which would utilize this power for the benefit of the people. The first step towards such a revolution would be to understand how money functions.